Sell Silver Coins
For Cash in Boston, MA

The order of operations at the counter is fixed. Photo ID comes out first, before any coin is touched. Then the lot gets sorted, because a mixed jar cannot be quoted as one number.

• Sorting - pre-1965 dimes, quarters and half dollars go in the 90% pile, .999 rounds and bullion coins in another, and anything sealed in a grading holder stays on its own
• Reading the coins - dates and mint marks are checked on the 90% pile, and slabbed coins are read through the sealed holder rather than opened
• Weighing - each pile goes on the scale separately, in troy ounces or pennyweights, since a 90% group and a fine silver group cannot share one total
• The math out loud - fineness times weight times that day's spot, read back pile by pile, with graded and limited-run pieces quoted on their own

You accept or you decline, and the coins go back in your bag either way.

Most of the money lost on a silver coin lot is lost at home. These five come up most often.

• The dip jar - a commercial silver dip strips the surface off a collectible coin in seconds; the metal weight survives, the premium above melt does not
• Cracking a slab - breaking a coin out of its sealed grading holder to show it properly throws away the grade and the certification with it
• Kitchen scales - a household scale reads avoirdupois ounces at 28.35 g while silver is quoted in troy ounces at 31.1 g, so home estimates land low
• The 1965 line - 1965 to 1970 Kennedy halves are 40% silver, not 90%, so sorting them with the pre-1965 coins skews your own math
• Face value math - a roll of dimes and a roll of quarters hold different silver weights; the pile is worth what it weighs

Bring the tubes, flips and paperwork as they are.